Steering Committee Meeting, March 2023

On the 8th of March 2023, the ASEAN IVO Steering Committee held a meeting at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), Singapore. The meeting was chaired by Steering Committee Chairperson and NICT Vice President Hiroyuki Yano and co-chaired by the Executive Director of I2R Dr. Lye Kin Mun.

At this meeting, the primary topic of discussion was the selection of the new projects for 2023. The Secretariat informed the Steering Committee that due to several of the projects not using the maximum available budget, with one project requiring quite a small budget, it was possible for ASEAN IVO to support one extra project this year. As a result, 6 projects were chosen for 2023. Furthermore, this was the second time that ASEAN IVO guaranteed that one project from Myanmar, Laos or Cambodia would be selected, to help with the development of ICT R&D in those countries. As such, a project proposed by Laos was selected this year. Furthermore, NICT is a participant in 4 out of the 6 projects chosen this year.

With regards to the selection of projects, Committee members stressed the importance of making sure that at least one project from each of the 5 possible proposal categories has a project selected from it. This would ensure diversity of research projects. By chance, this year each category had one project selected for it but the committee agreed that in future they would endeavour to make sure that this was a priority in selections.

Following on from discussions about how the forum is hosted that took place at the previous Steering Committee meeting, the Secretariat advised Committee members that the only way to extend the forum would be if the co-hosts or another member organisation of ASEAN IVO agreed to provide further funding to help support the Secretariat. The Secretariat also urged Committee members to encourage prospective project leaders to find matching funds for their projects, in order to expand the capabilities of projects and further improve cooperation.

Lastly, the Committee received a presentation from Dr. Biplab Sikdar, from the National University of Singapore, about Singapore's current policies and direction for ICT R&D. They received a detailed presentation discussing the various funding sources and initiatives conducted by both the government and the private sector. Additionally, the Committee had a lengthy discussion regarding this presentation.

The next Steering Committee meeting is due to take place after the next ASEAN IVO forum in late 2023, which is currently expected to be held in Laos.